by Amy | Aug 9, 2013 | Blog, Context, The Art of Faith
Some of you may know that I work with the high school youth group at our church here in Minot. I love it. For a lot of reasons. It’s such an exciting time in life, the kids are fun, they keep me current, they know how to do adorable things with their hair and wear to find the cutest dresses in town {okay, not the boys…}. But I also love being around this age group because they are old enough to really grasp spiritual lessons. They are old enough to ask critical questions and seek out Biblical answers…and young enough to be excitable.
Last school year our church was without a youth pastor. So the youth group relied on volunteers to run the show. I’m so happy to tell you all that the church has hired a new pastor of student ministries…and he is awesome. And so is his wife. The kids adore him, his teaching is solid, he knows tons of fun games, he’s an all around keeper.
So, it’s been a while since I blogged a devotional…and last night’s discussion with the youth was just so awesome I had to share it here with you. These are mostly thoughts from Sam {the new YP}, so don’t go thinking I’m a genius. I’m simply a vessel to carry the message across.
Last night he started devotional time by telling us that the Bible will blow our minds. It’s a statement I totally agree with. It’s blown mine on numerous occasions. It’s a perfect document. Complete and complex. Clever, current and {most of all}, living. If it hasn’t ever blown your mind, I encourage you to spend some time with the good book. Read it. Read commentaries. It’ll happen. Your mind will explode. In a good way.
The passage Sam focused on was Matthew 22:15-22. For those of us who grew up in VBS, this is a familiar story. Jesus talks about paying taxes. It’s pretty famous really. I’ve quoted the NIV below. But here is the gist. Jesus is asked if, since we belong to God, that we have to pay taxes. He asks to see a coin, which has Caesar’s face on it…then tells them to give Caesar what is his, and God what is His. Make sense?
Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”
But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.
Now, let’s take a step back. {Get ready for that mind blown moment when you realize just how amazing and perfect this Word is.} Take a look at Genisis 1:27.
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
After looking at these two passages and discussing them a little, Sam put them together…it went something like this:
So…Jesus says that the money for taxes was Caesar’s because it bared his image. Then he tells us to give back to God what is God’s. What is God’s? What in this world bares His image?
These instances happened several thousand years apart. The Bible is perfect. My mind blew up when he made this connection.
Think about it. Are you a tax evader when it comes to the Kingdom? We all bare God’s image. There is no way around that truth. Think critically and pray critically about what you need to give back to God.
Amy
by Amy | Aug 7, 2013 | Blog, Crafts, The Art of Projects
Tonight I went out for some dessert with my friends from Bible study. I’ve been practically living in my gym attire, so when I get a chance to wear regular clothes, slap on some mascara and be seen in public…I jump. Tonight I even wore {gasp} a necklace.
Which meant that I went into the guestroom, opened the top drawer of the dresser, dug through some packing paper {where most of my necklaces are still packed from two moves ago}, found something worth wearing, and put it on. It’s a mess in there. And, honestly, embarrassing that I have a lot of really awesome stuff shoved in a drawer, still packed from when we lived in Oklahoma.
Case in point, I need an organizing solution. Here are 11 of my favorites. I’ll probably pull inspiration from from a few of these and come up with a custom solution perfect for my space and collection. In the mean time, get a little inspiration of your own. Right here.
1. HGTV has a great tutorial for making these cute organizers from cast off wine crates. Not a wine drinker? Your local liquor store may have crates on hand that they toss after a shipment comes in. Pro…this is beautiful. Con…will all of my necklaces fit??
2. I bought a frame from Hobby Lobby on clearance that looks just about like this. It’s on my gallery wall. Originally this was an item for sale on Etsy. But Allender readers are super savvy, so I know we could whip one of these up on our own. So clever for organizing earrings.
3. This is a great idea from Infarrantly Creative, and it’s super cheap! These are paint sticks {free} from the hardware store. Painted and adorned with cup hooks. The best part of this design is that lots and lots of bling can be stored this way. I think this idea could transcend into the craft supply realm as well.
4 & 5. These two images are of the same organizer. Also from Infarrantly Creative. There is a killer tutorial on how she made this sneaky organizer. I love it because it can masquerade my mess as classy art work.
6. Shelterness shared this organizer. It’s simple and effective. I like how there are bins at the bottom to catch all the random bits and pieces. Oh, and the shelf space on top isn’t bad either.
7. I love the idea of building an organizer with pallets. Especially since I can pick them up for free. This may be too bulky for my room. But that won’t stop me from loving it. {From the Rustic Creek Etsy shop}
8. I saw some shutters sitting on the curb in my neighborhood a few weeks ago. How I wish I had picked them up. Maybe they will throw out some more. At any rate, this shutter organizer from Celebrating Everyday Life is so simple to make and it’s tall and skinny so it can fit in a tight spot.
9. I think vintage wooden hangers are just beautiful. I can see three or four of these bad boys lined up on my wall. All Our Days came up with a great solution.
10. Apartment Therapy featured this easy to make organizer from Solaana’s Flickr page. Go on over to their site to get to the original image. I’ve even seen these accordion peg hangers at Dollar General!
11. Who doesn’t love an old, rustic window frame? Husbands, maybe. But we all know boys can be weird. I am loving window frames right now. And this organizer is just adorable. I love how the look can be customized with scrapbook paper or fabric. Our Borrowed Abode has a great tutorial on how this beauty is made.
by Amy | Aug 6, 2013 | Blog, The Art of the Moment
One hundred years. Can you even fathom that? I certainly can’t. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have seen and remember when telephones became commonplace. Then to see them transform into something cordless…and something that we now carry everywhere with us. To remember the earliest of records and the invention of the MP3 player. To have probably known people who fought in the Civil War {or at least remembered it} and have lived through many, many others. If you were 100 years old you would have lived through Charles Lindbergh’s flight…then seen a man walk on the moon.
Incredible.
I could go on all night. It just blows my mind.
That’s why several weeks ago when a friend who comes to my fitness classes approached me about taking some formal portraits at a family reunion honoring her mother’s 100th birthday…I was all over it.
So I showed up with my camera to her {stunning} home. The garage door was open and there was a woman sitting in a wheelchair surrounded by family. As I walked up the driveway I figured that this must be another relative. Someone probably in her mid-80’s. She chatting and asking questions about the evening. This didn’t look like a 100 year old woman. For goodness sake, she was sharp as a tack and beautiful.
“You must be Amy. This is Jean…our guest of honor.”
This was her. In all the years that I’ve been blessed to live I’ve thought about time a lot. In school I learned history. In elementary school we counted out the days. Evey year on the 100th day of school we were supposed to bring in 100 of something, to give us an idea of what 100 “looked” like. I’ve pictured 100 in pennies, elbow macaroni, crayons and even Kleenex. But never have I seen 100 look as brilliant as Jean.
Being able to photograph these precious family portraits was a great honor. I’ve still got some editing to do…but here is a sneak peek for you.
{Jean and her four children}
{The whole gang. 38 in all!}
{Look at all those beautiful great-grands}
by Amy | Aug 2, 2013 | Blog, The Art of the Moment
You remember Lauren and Ricky {oh, and Samson of course}?! Well their beautiful baby has made her debut and I had the grand pleasure of taking sweet baby Evolet’s first set of portraits. Just like her parents, she is great in front of the camera. So photogenic, so laid back. She doesn’t even know what it means to pose, but she’s pretty darn good at it.
Recently I added these super adorable vintage nursery scales for my prop collection. Don’t you love it?
Shooting Evolet’s session was so super fun. And I do mean SUPER. Lauren and Ricky are a fun, quirky couple and I’m all over that. So when Lauren pulled out a pair of daddy-daughter super hero capes that she gave Ricky for Father’s Day {how sweet, right?} I was more than excited to shoot a few {okay, a few dozen} frames of the two disguised as their alter egos.
Tomorrow I’ll be putting together a birth announcement for this exciting addition. Be sure to look for Evolet’s full session on the Facebook page next week!
Amy
by Amy | Aug 1, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
Okay folks. Today is the day I show you how I made my outdoor room dreams come true. I’ll tell you what I did, what I bought and where I got it. Heck, I’ll even tell you things that I got wrong so you can get them right. Now, I know you’ve seen this photo a million times…but here’s the shed. This is what I started with.
The first challenge was getting rid of that thing. Originally I had thought the toughest part of getting that out of the yard would be convincing Derek that it was a good idea. But, well, then he had to leave for a bit. And there is very little he can do to stop me via Skype. So I made sure all our stuff had a home in the garage or the garbage can and listed this bad boy online.
A nice gentleman and his wife wanted it. They came, dissembled it and hauled it all away. Then I was left with this…Which, according to the neighbors, was already an improvement.
There are a couple things you can note from these images. First of all…I used the packed dirt where the shed had been to do a little spray painting. That’s from a frame I repainted for my gallery wall. Next you can lay your eyes on all the other junk trash usable materials without the shed to distract you. At the time I didn’t know if or what for I could use all that weathered wood, but I decided to keep it on hand…just in case. It was all pressure treated, so despite it’s color it was actually pretty good quality.
In the end, keeping it proved to be a good choice. Now I have a table and benches to match.
Next came the most challenging part of this whole process: making the ground level. This was hard for a few reasons. One being that there were two stumps and a chunk of rail road lumber in the dirt where the patio would be. I had decided on a 10×15′ patio space, so I needed to level the ground where the shed had stood as well as the surrounding area.
I looked at renting tools to remove stumps. {I’m too cheap.} And tutorials on burning them out. {Too impatient…I was itching like a kid with poison ivy to start laying bricks.} Eventually though, I decided to just dig. If I couldn’t get them out…well…then I’d have to resort to different measures. So I dug down around each stump. It was pretty easy going because the stumps were a big rotten underneath. When I hit a root that my shovel couldn’t cut, I took an axe to it. This took a bit of time…and boy were they heavy to pull out, but out they came.
To get the rest of the area leveled, I began shoveling the elevated dirt from the shed’s foundation to lower areas. In places where grass would be covered I dug it up and transferred it to that dead dirt patch you saw in the previous image. There is no secret to this. Just one shovel at a time. I packed the dirt down with a home-rigged tamp and checked for level until it was pretty much even.
Now I had to make a big trip to Menard’s. I picked up edgers to contain the patio floor {that’s those long gray stones around…well…the edge}, play sand {the cheap kind you’d use in a sand box}, and a steel fire ring {nothing too fancy since it would be covered by brick anyway.}
First set your edge blocks. This is a bit hard and time consuming. They need to be set in the dirt a few inches to be firmly held in place. And they need to be level.
Now…let me take a moment to talk about level on a patio. You do not want things to be exactly level. Yep, you read that right. To allow water to run off, set your stones on a slight {very slight} slope.
So put your edgers in one at a time. Check for level after each one. Use a square on your corners to make sure they are 90 degrees. This friends, I did not do. And boy was it a mistake. If you come to my house you’ll notice a weird side of my patio. That’s because it’s not perfectly square. Bummer. So check for level and square. It’s worth it.
Once your perimeter is in place rip open those bags of sand. The area of my patio is about 150 ft sq. I used 30 bags of sand at 50 lbs each. You need a bed of sand at least an inch deep. So pour it in. Then level that out. I used a little contraption my dad showed me how to make. You can see it in the first image above.
Take a long level length of wood. {I used a 4×4 post I dug out.} Lay that across your patio space, resting on the edgers. Attach a second, skinnier piece to its side. Attach it so that it hangs down to the point you want the bottom of your pavers or bricks to rest. In my case, I used 2.5″ bricks, so my board {the green one above} hung 2.5″ down from the edgers. With your long post resting on the edgers, drag it across your area {best if you invite a friend to help}. No you have level sand. Make sense? I hope so.
Once the sand has been leveled out, you can start laying your stone. Again, always check for level.
I used a quick set mortar to hold the bricks in place around the fire.
After all your bricks are in place get a few more bags of sand. {I used 2.5 50 lb bags.} Dump some sand out and start sweeping it into the cracks. Do this over several days as the sand settles.
Then furnish your new space. As I told you in previous posts…the pair of chairs was a Salvation Army find for $30 total. I recovered them. The bench was pulled from a local variety shop in town. The cushions were a summer clearance item from Target.
It looked good…but I craved more. It needed light! I have no trees around the patio to hang them from…so I came up with this alternative.
Back to Menard’s. This time for new 2×4’s. I bought 4 12′ posts and 2 10′ posts. At each corner of the patio I dug down three feet. Yes, that’s deep. Then I cemented the four tall posts in with Quickrete. Check for level!!
Grab a friend for this next part. Once the concrete has dried completely, you can hang the upper lintel. I did it alone…but I really don’t know how I manages it. Screw them in place with deck screws.
I used 5 strands of 20′ patio lights from Target to create a canopy of light above the patio. I ran each strand between the posts around nails that I put in the top of each lintel. After wrapping the cord around I hammered the nail head down slightly to hold the cord in place.
Then I moved all the furniture back in and boom…patio, roasted.
Other things on my shopping list:
A grate to cover the fire pit…that’s code here in PraCan.
An adorable ottoman…super sale from Target for only $12.00
Plants for planters recovered from the yard
A white extension cord to power those precious lights {Target}
Two mercury glass lanterns from Menards
Two citronella candles to ward off the state bird of North Dakota {mosquitoes}
Did I miss anything? If you have questions that I didn’t cover…let me know! I’d love to hear from you. And yes, I did this. Me. A girl. With no husband in sight. I’m terrible at math. And only moderately strong. If I can, you can.
Amy
by Amy | Jul 31, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
A month or so I told you about my Mele Kalikimaka moment. If you have no idea what that means…read the post here. When I started with the patio I really wasn’t sure how it would all come together. But it’s done now, and I think it turned out pretty nice. At very least, I think we can all agree that it’s an improvement from the rusty shed that I started with.
You like?
I do.
I’m still missing a little grass around the edges, but in the big scheme of things it’s not such a big deal. And the craziest thing about it is I did it all by myself. Well…that’s not entirely true. I had some help hauling bricks. And a bit of help leveling the soil. And moving furniture. But it’s been a one man show for the most part.
It’s twinkly. It’s warm, cozy, inviting. It looks like summer. I’m really happy. Now who wants to come over and hang out?
Tomorrow I’ll give you all the tips and tricks I learned along the way.
Amy
by Amy | Jul 30, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
I wish I took more self portraits. That way I could show you just how ridiculous the things going on at my house really look. But alas…I’m much too busy with my projects and hurting myself…and doing things in weird, awkward, one-man-show type ways to stop and pose for a selfie. Maybe I’ll work on that in the future.
So, you’ll never believe this, but…the patio is done! Yep. Done. As in finished. As in I’m hosting my very first big party on the patio on Saturday. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see some photos though. I put the finishing touches on it this past weekend. While doing so, I got to thinking about what the neighbors must think.
You see, Derek and I moved into our house just about a year ago, but up until recently–while he’s been gone– we didn’t know any of the neighbors. My sole interaction with one of them was just long enough for Henry {yes, that’s his real name and he is married to a Betty–adorable, I know!!} to tell me not to shovel my snow over the property line. So I didn’t. And I minded my own business. And I went about my business. Then something happened. I think I sort of morphed into that “crazy person” down the street. I started unleashing fury on my project list and in turn, created a bit of a spectacle.
At first I only noticed some looks from folks driving by. Then walkers turned into gawkers. Then the neighbors started asking questions. I get pretty shy and awkward when approached sometimes. I don’t mean to, but it happens. For as many projects as I’ve done, I still get kind of self-conscious about my abilities. Especially while Derek is away. When people see me working and stop to chat about it, I always figure they know more than me {which they probably do} and think I’m a fool because I’m going about things the wrong way {which may or may not be correct.} So when the neighbors started coming around to ask what I was up to I got nervous. We own the corner lot, so everyone can judge see my antics.
Overall, to my relief the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Now I not only know my neighbors, but consider them friends. Even Henry and Betty…who have proven to be gems. I’ve even met some people who live in the surrounding blocks. They’ve stopped by the fence to say “hi” and ask where I get all my nonstop energy.
At the very least I think I’ve been a pretty good and cheap source of entertainment. Especially since several of my undertakings have really been two person jobs that I’ve jimmie-rigged to be solo acts.
Tonight I thought I’d take a brief moment to look back some of this summer’s finest moments that could have been seen through the windows of the houses next door.
1. Before the weather really turned I was busy working on the bedroom. That meant many, many days a mysterious neighbor girl hauling roll after roll of carpet out of the house. And several garbage days that looked like this:
2. First of all, the process of moving everything from our ugly, rusty shed to the garage. Then a stranger coming and dissembling the shed to take it away. {Oh, and let’s not forget the spray painting projects that were done in the yard. You can see remnants in the photo below.}
3. I spent an afternoon putting all of my body weight and energy into wiggling 4×4’s loose and pulling them up out of the ground from the area around the shed. Yeah, that stuff down there.
4. I have only had one vehicle parked in the garage all summer because the other half has constantly been devoted to project space. When the garage has been opened passerbys have been able to see chairs being rehabbed, pallet benches in the making, fence posts turning into window boxes, planters being filled and crap wood being turned into a table.
5. While we are talking about the garage…there’s a good chance a few people have spotted me using my car as a ladder to reach high items in there. Someone saw my hand and feet prints in the saw dust that had accumulated on it and asked if someone had been standing on my car. Yes, weird…it was me.
6. Several may have heard me udder some form of gibberish profanity when I dropped a patio edger on my thumb. It feels better, but looks a bit worse.
7. And let’s not forget load after load of bricks for the patio.
8. Speaking of the patio…I’m sure watching me dig and level the ground was a treat. I dug up three 5-gallon buckets worth of landscape rock from where the shed used to stand. Let me tell you this. Hauling those away was not a graceful looking task. I’m strong, but not that strong.
9. One day I didn’t have time to leave the house to do my personal training at the gym, so I had my client come to my house. We got some weird looks for doing lunges, weird kicks and sprints across my yard.
10. Maybe the most awkward, entertaining thing I’ve done all summer has been finishing the patio {let’s be honest, it’s an outdoor room} project. I wanted to hang a canopy of lights so I built a post and lintil structure on either end of the patio. Simple enough…but getting the lintil up alone was quite a challenge. Let’s just say there was a ladder, a prop, a second ladder, some words not fit for children and a lot of luck involved.
11. Yesterday I spent an hour sledge hammering a bunch of concrete I found after the shed came down. I felt like Thor.
12. Summer is coming to a close up here in PraCan…and so is my outdoor project list. But I’ve got one more big one up my sleeve. What is it? Who knows? I’ve had a lot of questions and I’ve explained it to many. My response is the same for all my undertakings: if something goes terribly, horribly wrong, I’ll just rip it out…sledge hammer it…or chain saw it down and pretend it never happened. So…any guesses?
Amy
by Amy | Jul 26, 2013 | Blog, The Art of Adventure
I’ve been gone a long time. I know. I have this goal of “writing out” so that even when I’m away and unable to post I’d have content coming up every day or so. But, as you can tell…that goal keeps getting shoved underneath a bunch of other more pressing/urgent/fun things. Anyway I’m home to PraCan now and I’m very happy to be here. The weather is simply ideal.
While on vacation I was all over the Midwest. I even took along a native Californian who had never explored the possibilities this amazing region has to offer. Since I wasn’t just bumming around solo the pressure was on to show her a good time. It’s no secret that I adore the Wisconsin/Michigan/Indiana zone…and I wanted her to adore it too.
I’ll be breaking my trip up into a few posts. And tonight I’ll be addressing a question I get asked a lot:
Where do you come up with these places? How do you find them?
Yes, true. That’s two questions. But the premise is the same…I love to travel {even when it makes me nervous}. As in every other aspect of my life and personality, my travel practices are quirky/unique/weird. I’ve been on arranged tours and I don’t like them. I’ve stayed in the “it” places of the classic “destinations” and I didn’t like it. I’m all about creating a get away that is unique. Something you’ll remember. Something your friends have never done. Something off the beaten path.
I’ve been a lot of places and my best trips have been to places most have never heard of, when I’ve stayed in little known nooks and eaten in dive-ish diners. I’ve two-stepped with locals in a Texas dance hall, stayed overnight in an airplane hanger-come-hotel, listened jazz in NOLA, eaten world famous dinner rolls and even jumped off a cliff.
Don’t stop reading here and think that I’m a big, fat bragger. I’ve been blessed enough to do some really cool things. And you can too. When I get home and post my photos people always ask how we came across all these wild/weird fun-tivities. On my most recent adventure I decided to visit the Wisconsin Dells. Here is where we stayed the night.
Remember I was traveling with that California Raisin…so this trip had to be a blast. So, for better or worse I dragged her along on one of my signature adventures. Cliffside Resort and Suites. Sound like a place you’d book? Well you should.
Why stay here instead of the well known Holiday Inn Express? A bunch of reasons. First of all you’ll be supporting a local business. Second, just look at this place. It’s soaked in quirky lake-house nostalgia. Even better…it sits right on Lake Delton directly across from the Tommy Bartlett stands. So you can take in the show from the resort grounds. Don’t know Tommy? Look at his website here, and we’ll get to how to find similar attractions in a minute.
Not to mention a pristine outdoor pool, lakeside seating and fire pits for guest usage. This place was just precious.
Being at the Cliffside Resort made me feel like I was at summer camp {and I never even went to camp as a kid.} Or at very least like I was in “Dirty Dancing” at that family camp where Baby met what’s-his-name. Now, it’s your turn. Here’s a quick list of ways you can track down the coolest, weirdest, quirkiest travel spots. (more…)
